Following the sudden announcement made on Monday morning that Justin Trudeau would be resigning from his position as both Prime Minister and Liberal Party Leader, Michael McLeod, the Member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories, shared some of his thoughts on the news.
“I have to say, first of all, it’s been a very interesting week. It’s something I think we all expected to happen with the announcement of the Prime Minister’s resignation, but it’s not totally unexpected. Given recent events, it’s something I know the Prime Minister struggled with on making the decision. He had publicly stated many times that he wanted to lead the Liberal Party of Canada into the next election. I have stated publicly that I wanted our government to stay in power and introduce a budget and pass a number of bills that we’ve worked on over the last eight to ten months, but as it stands it’s become very clear that the caucus and party members are increasingly no longer in support of his leadership and he just couldn’t continue.”
Trudeau made the announcement on the morning of January 6th, where he said that Canada “deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me, that if I am having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.”
McLeod continued, saying “we all recognized that he had his detractors, and at the same time there’s many Canadians, and I’ve heard from a number of Northerners that they’re experiencing mixed feelings on this news. Many of the people that I’ve heard from say that they expected him to take the appropriate step, which was to step down. I’ve also heard some say that they’ve appreciated the progress that our country was able to accomplish during his time.”
McLeod stated that while he believes the Prime Minister and his government have accomplished many things during his time in office, he has witnessed progress slow to a crawl in the last few months, and understands the frustrations of Canadian citizens.
“I have a lot of respect for him. I believe Justin Trudeau to be the Prime Minister in my lifetime who understands the needs of Northern communities and Indigenous people. He certainly understands the needs of reconciliation, and during our time in office we invested in many of their priorities.”
Looking towards the future, McLeod explained that members of the Liberal Party will be holding meetings later this week to discuss the next leader of the party. McLeod says that there are a few “accomplished and capable individuals who are interested in the position.” For now, the party is simply working on establishing roles and timelines for the leadership race.
